Tips on writing the opening line

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So I'm writing a quasi-entertainment story and how should I start the opening line? I know how the story goes and how it ends but I can't find the right way for it to start
 

Arcturus

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As a general guideline, opening lines are best when they are short, simple and not overly detailed. Now there are exceptions that can be great, but simple, slightly vague openings cause the reader to want to read more and find out what exactly is going on.
 

ars

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A good rule of thumb is that you don't have to stress about the opening line itself - most people will read at least the first paragraph or the first section before deciding whether to continue or not. I'm in favor of Arcturus's advice! You want the very first thing the reader sees to be a message that's clear, understandable, and hopefully, entertaining. It should immediately tell the reader what they should expect from your story.

I collect a lot of information about writing tips, so I'll share what I've learned about introductions here in case it helps anyone else looking for guidance and direction.

The introduction lets the reader know 'this is the kind of journey you're going to go on'. It should give the reader a sense of understanding about what they can hope to read about for the rest of the book; for example, if you start reading a Villainess novel, the very first scene will usually be one that shows her at her lowest point. She's being humiliated and scorned, but she stands up for herself - and the reader knows that the rest of the series will be about how the villainess climbs back up and regains dignity from her lowest point. The cultivation novel Coiling Dragon begins with a training scene, where the protagonist is only a common child - but he also has a spark of tenacity and will that the other children don't have. From there, the reader knows that the series will be about the protagonist's climb to power (as well as a whole lot of worldbuilding, judging by how much description was packed into that opening scene).

The way you begin your story is important because it tells your reader several things:

1) How good is your writing? Is it easy to understand? Are there any mistakes which tell the reader that your language is shaky? Are the sentences too long and winding, making the words hard to absorb? Are the sentences too short and uninteresting? All of these things can be understood by the first line or couple of lines, and depending on people's tastes, a simple spelling mistake or an awkward bit of wording can turn them off. This is why it's important to polish your writing as best as you're willing, but since readers here tend to be pretty forgiving about spelling/grammar, it's not something to stress too much on.

2) What kind of story is it? Who is the protagonist, and what are they going to do for the rest of the story? The readers want to see a direction for the journey they'll be going on. They don't want to be told, "Here's this guy, follow him, I swear he's cool"; they want to be told, "Here's this guy, he was just about to go on a first date with his dream girl when he stumbled upon an alien artifact that changed his body, and now he has to hide from her, from his family, and from the government while he founds out what the hell is going on". Every interesting protagonist has to have a motivation, something that they want or are trying to do, which drives the story forward. The introduction is where you tease the reader with the beginning of the adventure - they should be able to see, from this intro, that somewhere down the line will be a climactic event that came about from whatever happened in this opening scene.

3) Do you know where you're going with this story? People hate the 'just woke up and got out of bed' introduction because it tells us nothing about what the story is going to be like. If you're looking to read a romance between an unpopular girl and a princely guy, do you want to see 'Ayumi yawned and rolled out of bed'? No! You want to read about the unfortunate circumstances of the unpopular girl so you can feel sympathy for her (and expect that somewhere along the line, the tables will turn and great things will happen to her). If you want to read an adventure about an assassin who gets thrown into another world, do you want to read 'Mr Dark opened his eyes to shadows, and rose from his slumber'? Hell no! You'd want to see him on whatever assassination mission he was on just before he gets tossed into another world.

The introduction should say something about the problem your character faces, which they will try to solve (whether they know it or not) through the rest of the story. This problem is what should be resolved by the end. So, if your story ends with a character finding the love of his life and becoming fulfilled, then you want to introduce in the beginning that he's miserable and alone (but not really doing anything about it, until the events of the story kick in). If your story ends with your character becoming the savior of the world, you should introduce the protagonist and what she thinks about the world's problem. Does she consider it her duty to solve? Or does she think, 'Nope, has nothing to do with me'? What starts her on her journey of saving the world?

Writers who don't know where their story is going to end tend to make their introductions too vague. They focus too much on mundane actions, for example, while not showing any character or plot progression - because there is none. While this is fine for some formats (slice of life, for example), it's not great if you were planning on creating a 50-chapter epic with a-ma-zing plot. That's not to say that you need to finely bullet point every detail of your ending or your story, but you should know, vaguely, what you want to achieve with your writing, and your introduction should tell the reader what that is.
 
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Arcturus

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A good rule of thumb is that you don't have to stress about the opening line itself - most people will read at least the first paragraph or the first section before deciding whether to continue or not. I'm in favor of Arcturus's advice! You want the very first thing the reader sees to be a message that's clear, understandable, and hopefully, entertaining. It should immediately tell the reader what they should expect from your story.

I collect a lot of information about writing tips, so I'll share what I've learned about introductions here in case it helps anyone else looking for guidance and direction.

The introduction lets the reader know 'this is the kind of journey you're going to go on'. It should give the reader a sense of understanding about what they can hope to read about for the rest of the book; for example, if you start reading a Villainess novel, the very first scene will usually be one that shows her at her lowest point. She's being humiliated and scorned, but she stands up for herself - and the reader knows that the rest of the series will be about how the villainess climbs back up and regains dignity from her lowest point. The cultivation novel Coiling Dragon begins with a training scene, where the protagonist is only a common child - but he also has a spark of tenacity and will that the other children don't have. From there, the reader knows that the series will be about the protagonist's climb to power (as well as a whole lot of worldbuilding, judging by how much description was packed into that opening scene).

The way you begin your story is important because it tells your reader several things:

1) How good is your writing? Is it easy to understand? Are there any mistakes which tell the reader that your language is shaky? Are the sentences too long and winding, making the words hard to absorb? Are the sentences too short and uninteresting? All of these things can be understood by the first line or couple of lines, and depending on people's tastes, a simple spelling mistake or an awkward bit of wording can turn them off. This is why it's important to polish your writing as best as you're willing, but since readers here tend to be pretty forgiving about spelling/grammar, it's not something to stress too much on.

2) What kind of story is it? Who is the protagonist, and what are they going to do for the rest of the story? The readers want to see a direction for the journey they'll be going on. They don't want to be told, "Here's this guy, follow him, I swear he's cool"; they want to be told, "Here's this guy, he was just about to go on a first date with his dream girl when he stumbled upon an alien artifact that changed his body, and now he has to hide from her, from his family, and from the government while he founds out what the hell is going on". Every interesting protagonist has to have a motivation, something that they want or are trying to do, which drives the story forward. The introduction is where you tease the reader with the beginning of the adventure - they should be able to see, from this intro, that somewhere down the line will be a climactic event that came about from whatever happened in this opening scene.

3) Do you know where you're going with this story? People hate the 'just woke up and got out of bed' introduction because it tells us nothing about what the story is going to be like. If you're looking to read a romance between an unpopular girl and a princely guy, do you want to see 'Ayumi yawned and rolled out of bed'? No! You want to read about the unfortunate circumstances of the unpopular girl so you can feel sympathy for her (and expect that somewhere along the line, the tables will turn and great things will happen to her). If you want to read an adventure about an assassin who gets thrown into another world, do you want to read 'Mr Dark opened his eyes to shadows, and rose from his slumber'? Hell no! You'd want to see him on whatever assassination mission he was on just before he gets tossed into another world.

The introduction should say something about the problem your character faces, which they will try to solve (whether they know it or not) through the rest of the story. This problem is what should be resolved by the end. So, if your story ends with a character finding the love of his life and becoming fulfilled, then you want to introduce in the beginning that he's miserable and alone (but not really doing anything about it, until the events of the story kick in). If your story ends with your character becoming the savior of the world, you should introduce the protagonist and what she thinks about the world's problem. Does she consider it her duty to solve? Or does she think, 'Nope, has nothing to do with me'? What starts her on her journey of saving the world?

Writers who don't know where their story is going to end tend to make their introductions too vague. They focus too much on mundane actions, for example, while not showing any character or plot progression - because there is none. While this is fine for some formats (slice of life, for example), it's not great if you were planning on creating a 50-chapter epic with a-ma-zing plot. That's not to say that you need to finely bullet point every detail of your ending or your story, but you should know, vaguely, what you want to achieve with your writing, and your introduction should tell the reader what that is.
The thing is though, your introduction should not be all exposition. Many authors try to info-dump/explain everything early on. It's far more common to do that than to be too vague about what's happening. And while you certainly will get across what type of story you're writing, it won't be that good. The better stories get across tone and feel for what the story is about without really explaining much exposition at all.

I disagree vociferously with the notion that you need to introduce the core problem of the work that early on. Unless you're writing a shorter story, you want to draw your reader in slowly and then introduce them. You want to know one of the reasons why Xuanhuan are often inherently boring? Because typically, they introduce an MC with a goal that is to become the strongest and then the story spends forever on that one core motivation. If you're writing a story that only has one main problem and that's all your story revolves around, it's gonna be a really simple and basic one (i.e. write a short story).

Also why the hell should every romance story begin with a character that is miserable and alone and fulfilled? In fact, why do they even need romance to be fulfilled? Honestly a character like that needs to learn how to be self-fulfilling first, to see themself and know what they want.

Or why does the hero know or care about the problem the world is facing? Unless the hero is some sort of major leader, odds are the hero shouldn't. They have smaller problems on their hands that they care about, and as they grow and develop, they take a larger view of things. Here's a quote from LOTR that really encapsulates this idea: “It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” Frodo doesn't really know that he's going to be on a mission to save the world until halfway through the first book in the trilogy! What's important in an introduction is what starts the hero on the journey, not the saving the world.

You know what Worm, one of the most popular webnovels, introduces itself as? Even if we talk about the first story arc, it introduces itself as a basic superhero vs supervillain story. It showcases the gritty tone and some of the simple personal problems of the MC. Does it introduce the core problem of Worm? No. There's a lot of story left to build. It shows us what the story is, what it feels like, without just telling us about the world and its characters. The story's endgame or even who the true antagonists are aren't more than hinted at for awhile.

That's really what I mean by vague. When you show something, you can't say what it's exact meaning is. You form a picture, but it's not exactly clear without the context that more chapters will bring. When you tell something, the reader knows what they are getting. But it doesn't make for anything more than mediocre storytelling.

Though, I will admit, my initial advice was directed for opening lines, it certainly does apply to introductions as a whole.
 

ars

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The thing is though, your introduction should not be all exposition. Many authors try to info-dump/explain everything early on. It's far more common to do that than to be too vague about what's happening. And while you certainly will get across what type of story you're writing, it won't be that good. The better stories get across tone and feel for what the story is about without really explaining much exposition at all.

I disagree vociferously with the notion that you need to introduce the core problem of the work that early on. Unless you're writing a shorter story, you want to draw your reader in slowly and then introduce them. You want to know one of the reasons why Xuanhuan are often inherently boring? Because typically, they introduce an MC with a goal that is to become the strongest and then the story spends forever on that one core motivation. If you're writing a story that only has one main problem and that's all your story revolves around, it's gonna be a really simple and basic one (i.e. write a short story).

Also why the hell should every romance story begin with a character that is miserable and alone and fulfilled? In fact, why do they even need romance to be fulfilled? Honestly a character like that needs to learn how to be self-fulfilling first, to see themself and know what they want.

Or why does the hero know or care about the problem the world is facing? Unless the hero is some sort of major leader, odds are the hero shouldn't. They have smaller problems on their hands that they care about, and as they grow and develop, they take a larger view of things. Here's a quote from LOTR that really encapsulates this idea: “It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” Frodo doesn't really know that he's going to be on a mission to save the world until halfway through the first book in the trilogy! What's important in an introduction is what starts the hero on the journey, not the saving the world.

You know what Worm, one of the most popular webnovels, introduces itself as? Even if we talk about the first story arc, it introduces itself as a basic superhero vs supervillain story. It showcases the gritty tone and some of the simple personal problems of the MC. Does it introduce the core problem of Worm? No. There's a lot of story left to build. It shows us what the story is, what it feels like, without just telling us about the world and its characters. The story's endgame or even who the true antagonists are aren't more than hinted at for awhile.

That's really what I mean by vague. When you show something, you can't say what it's exact meaning is. You form a picture, but it's not exactly clear without the context that more chapters will bring. When you tell something, the reader knows what they are getting. But it doesn't make for anything more than mediocre storytelling.

Though, I will admit, my initial advice was directed for opening lines, it certainly does apply to introductions as a whole.
:blob_highfive: so happy to see this reply! you bring up so many good points! I'm really happy to talk about stuff like this so I'm stoked that took the time to read all that and point out some flaws.

Re: exposition - totally agreed! There's nothing more boring than having to read through an explanation of what the world is like, or a prologue of history, or like a primer on the magic system or something. I hope I didn't write anything in my first post that sounded like I was trying to tell people to do this... While the foundations of a world and how it works can be important to know (if those things are a big part of the story), it's not something that the reader has to understand right away. Thank you for pointing this out - it's so important to not do an info-drop at the beginning!

You're right about the timing of introducing the core problem! The crux of the plot isn't something to always bring up at the start, for every story. When I talk about 'the problem', what I mean is one of two things: the plot development and the character development.

At the very beginning of the story, the main character is unfulfilled. Something in his or her life is not 'right', or not 'complete'. There is something missing in their current state, and they usually don't always know what that is. Over the course of the story, the character should experience obstacles which challenge them. These obstacles culminate in the climax of the story, and the protagonist either succeeds (a good ending) or fails (a tragedy/bad ending). If the character succeeded at their goal, then they should be in a noticeably different state from how they were at the very beginning. For example, if we're looking at an adventure, then this would be the progression of a farm boy who lacks courage to a famous hero who has demonstrated bravery. If the character failed their goal, then they remain unfulfilled, and they are still riddled with the problems which held them back at the beginning of the story.

What I was getting at with my descriptions of the problem was that very last sentence - in order to show growth or progression, the character has to start at some place where the reader can feel that there is something in this character's life that isn't perfect. There is something that can be improved, whether the character him or herself knows it or not.

So, it's not necessarily that a writer has to showcase the major drama of their plot at the very beginning, but that whatever the first scene of their story is, it should hint that there is something - plot-wise or character-wise - that will be set in motion. Basically, what I'm trying to get at with my advice is that first scene has to have SOME purpose to the character or plot arc. It shouldn't be completely unrelated to the development of the plot or the character. I hope this is making sense. :blob_cringe:

(Of course, none of this is a set-in-stone rule!)

As for the examples, those were just quick generalizations to give a more concrete shape to what I was talking about. If you're writing a romance, you definitely don't have to always make your protagonist miserable at the start - but in my opinion, if the story is about the protagonist finding love, you need to show the character as someone whose life is 'missing something', usually companionship. That 'missing' feeling - whether it's the protagonist wistfully looking at couples and thinking 'It's fine, I don't have time for that anyway', or 'I need to focus on my job', or 'Who needs that? I'm completely fine by myself' (while exhibiting behaviors that they're not, actually, fine) - is what will change as the protagonist searches for and finds love.

I hope this clears up what I meant! I don't think our viewpoints are really different.

If I have to sum things up quickly:

An introduction scene should-
✓ Set up a key impression of the story in the reader's mind - maybe the tone of the story, maybe what the characters are like, maybe a facet of the plot.
✓ Hint at something that will be developed further along the story.

It should not-
X Dump a bunch of information and explanation.
X Be unrelated to whatever happens in the rest of the story.
X Explain everything that's going to happen in the rest of the book.

Does that sound about right? Or am I off-base?
 

Arcturus

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:blob_highfive: so happy to see this reply! you bring up so many good points! I'm really happy to talk about stuff like this so I'm stoked that took the time to read all that and point out some flaws.

Re: exposition - totally agreed! There's nothing more boring than having to read through an explanation of what the world is like, or a prologue of history, or like a primer on the magic system or something. I hope I didn't write anything in my first post that sounded like I was trying to tell people to do this... While the foundations of a world and how it works can be important to know (if those things are a big part of the story), it's not something that the reader has to understand right away. Thank you for pointing this out - it's so important to not do an info-drop at the beginning!

You're right about the timing of introducing the core problem! The crux of the plot isn't something to always bring up at the start, for every story. When I talk about 'the problem', what I mean is one of two things: the plot development and the character development.

At the very beginning of the story, the main character is unfulfilled. Something in his or her life is not 'right', or not 'complete'. There is something missing in their current state, and they usually don't always know what that is. Over the course of the story, the character should experience obstacles which challenge them. These obstacles culminate in the climax of the story, and the protagonist either succeeds (a good ending) or fails (a tragedy/bad ending). If the character succeeded at their goal, then they should be in a noticeably different state from how they were at the very beginning. For example, if we're looking at an adventure, then this would be the progression of a farm boy who lacks courage to a famous hero who has demonstrated bravery. If the character failed their goal, then they remain unfulfilled, and they are still riddled with the problems which held them back at the beginning of the story.

What I was getting at with my descriptions of the problem was that very last sentence - in order to show growth or progression, the character has to start at some place where the reader can feel that there is something in this character's life that isn't perfect. There is something that can be improved, whether the character him or herself knows it or not.

So, it's not necessarily that a writer has to showcase the major drama of their plot at the very beginning, but that whatever the first scene of their story is, it should hint that there is something - plot-wise or character-wise - that will be set in motion. Basically, what I'm trying to get at with my advice is that first scene has to have SOME purpose to the character or plot arc. It shouldn't be completely unrelated to the development of the plot or the character. I hope this is making sense. :blob_cringe:

(Of course, none of this is a set-in-stone rule!)

As for the examples, those were just quick generalizations to give a more concrete shape to what I was talking about. If you're writing a romance, you definitely don't have to always make your protagonist miserable at the start - but in my opinion, if the story is about the protagonist finding love, you need to show the character as someone whose life is 'missing something', usually companionship. That 'missing' feeling - whether it's the protagonist wistfully looking at couples and thinking 'It's fine, I don't have time for that anyway', or 'I need to focus on my job', or 'Who needs that? I'm completely fine by myself' (while exhibiting behaviors that they're not, actually, fine) - is what will change as the protagonist searches for and finds love.

I hope this clears up what I meant! I don't think our viewpoints are really different.

If I have to sum things up quickly:

An introduction scene should-
✓ Set up a key impression of the story in the reader's mind - maybe the tone of the story, maybe what the characters are like, maybe a facet of the plot.
✓ Hint at something that will be developed further along the story.

It should not-
X Dump a bunch of information and explanation.
X Be unrelated to whatever happens in the rest of the story.
X Explain everything that's going to happen in the rest of the book.

Does that sound about right? Or am I off-base?
That's a pretty good summation about introductions. It's partly why I've always believed it's better and easier to write them after you've written/planned a big chunk of what goes on later before you write your intro.
 
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S.D.Mills

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There are always exceptions that are so good they make other writers envious. Otherwise, the purpose of the first sentence is the make the reader read the rest of the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph's job is the make the reader unable to stop reading until they turn the page. The first page's job is the make the reader read the rest of the book.

I recommend first sentences that actually say something important. What I mean by this is, write a sentence that tells the reader something critical about the character we are first being introduced to. Sometimes the first character introduced is the story itself, but that's somewhat of a meta concept I won't go into. It's often a good idea to have the first line be a visceral experience. You don't start with a landscape. You start with a specific sensory focal point. Examples would be a line of dialogue that instantly tells us something important about the character speaking. Others would be a sound, the flicker of a light bulb, dabbing sweat from your stinging eyes, your cheeks going numb after your first kiss.
 

GDLiZy

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Laid out a hook. Make your readers curious enough to continue reading.

Also, what is quasi-entertainment?
 

Ai-chan

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So I'm writing a quasi-entertainment story and how should I start the opening line? I know how the story goes and how it ends but I can't find the right way for it to start
Opening line? It depends on what you're writing. Personally, Ai-chan thinks it's better if your opening line is descriptive of the type of story you're writing and the emotion you're trying to convey for that story. This is Ai-chan's ero-incest-comedy first paragraph.

Lately, my brother has been acting weird. It all started when he came home from Turkey. Turkey, the country. Not turkey the Thanksgiving dinner. God, every time I said Turkey, everyone would talk about the chicken-like animal. Even when I specifically said, "The country named Turkey", they would say, "There must be a lot of turkeys there."

"Lately, my brother has been acting weird." is my first line. It should immediately invoke the response of "How has he been weird?", "What did he do?" and other similar questions. The rest of the paragraph informs the reader of the general tone of the story. While variations exist, it's often not a good idea to change the general tone of your story abruptly.

If you have to change the tone, it has to have some warning beforehand, a certain premonition that things are about to change. An example would be a case of Mushoku Tensei and Gun-ota. In Mushoku Tensei, the teleportation may be sudden, but the author already hinted at Rudeus's separation with all he knew and love many chapters before. Gun-ota not only did it abruptly, there was no prior warning, as if the author only just thought about including the separation and beatdown for the shock factor in that one chapter.

The distracted manner of speaking in Ai-chan's first paragraph is intentional, as the protagonist reveals in a while later how she's been finding it hard to concentrate on anything after what her brother did to her. I won't say this is the best opening, but it's just an example, in case you can't visualize anything.
 

Chiisutofupuru

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I find it much easier to write(or rewrite) the first part of the story after I've written a big chunk of it. Why? Well, it's easier to foreshadow things if you'd already written about them :3
My advise? Skip the "beginning" and start writing out what you do know. The end, climax or first big conflict in the story is a good place to start. Just toss yourself into a vivid scene and let(maybe force?) your hand(s) to do the rest.
 
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